FLOOR!

First off, a confession:

When I suggested doing the floor ourselves because I was unhappy with the quotes we got and/or the service provided, I was DEFINITELY underestimating the amount of work it would be. This task has probably been one of the more labour-intensive ones and that is surely saying something.

Jake spent three SOLID days patching the floor - motivated by the desire to go to a cabin with our friends Winston and Andrea.


 He was painstaking and precise and managed to patch the three major spots, plus the rad-holes all with flooring salvaged from under cabinets.
 Pretty good, eh? And that is before it is sanded! (obviously)
 This is pretty blurry, but I'll leave it on here - washing the floor with a scraper in hand to get the last of the drywall mud off! Fun!
 After the patching and cleaning, it was time to sand. Jake tried to surprise me while I was gone on my bachelorette - he wanted to have the floor sanded by the time I got home. It didn't quite go as planned. Jake got sick, sicker than I've ever seen him, and also the floor was putting up one heck of a fight. It was not happy about having the orange sanded away. We tried our best with that initial round (24 hour rental of the sander and at least 10 of those hours spent with it running, including me getting up at 7 the next day to do some sanding before returning it!), but decided to go for round 2. Eventually we figured out that we needed A LOT of 20-grit sandpaper, PLUS some extra 'umph' as they say - I stood on the sander while Jake pushed it around. I know it sounds like I got the good end of that bargain, but let me explain: 'Standing' in this case is more like 'balancing' and 'surfing' - not relaxing. In fact, I don't know that my calves have ever worked so hard. And they are hella sore STILL, a few days later.
 Anyway, enough of my whining. We whipped that floor into shape and got a lot more orange off. It doesn't look uniform, they way it might if a professional had done it, but we were dealing with very thin boards and didn't want to strip them entirely.

Jake just finished putting the 3rd coat of urethane on (so crazy that the sanding and cleaning takes SO LONG and then the urethane goes on lightning fast. At least, each individual coat does.), and it is looking GOOD. A lot less orange, thank goodness, and the patched areas are blending right in. 

Tomorrow, two more coats, and then off to the cabin! For a week! Of not renovating or even living in it! Holla!

Comments

  1. Norma FairbairnAugust 26, 2012 at 5:37 AM

    Fantabulous!! Really impressing the heck out of me. Hope you have a wonderful(know you will) well deserved break you two!!

    ReplyDelete

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